Emily Caldwell says Gallery Parallax has been a dream since February, when she drove through Phoenix on a trip from Portland to Los Angeles. She had just convinced a friend to open a gallery and start a new business, so, she thought, why not do the same for herself?
The model and photographer describes most of her life as being out and about and on the road. She says Roosevelt Row always came up when she talked to friends about the art scene in downtown Phoenix, so when a spot opened at 610 East Roosevelt Street, #148, she bit.
For the first month -- starting tonight -- Caldwell will display her own photography as well as the work by her mother, Libby.
Parallax, she says, comes from "a difference of view from two points" -- the intersection of their work, which is parallel by nature, but criss-crossed in artistic and aesthetic perspectives.
Libby's background is in painting and fine art portraiture. She learned from the Slade School in London and then studied in Spain in an atelier and continued painting portraits and everyday scenes.
Emily describes the past six years of her life in the little more than 150,000 miles that she put on her Honda Civic. It was during that time that she developed her own photography between traveling, going to shows, and recording with her band Caldwell, which includes her good friend, actor, and star of Entourage, Adrian Grenier. (And, yes, he'll be on Roosevelt Row for the opening tonight.)
"My initial hopes are to become a member of this thriving web of small businesses and the community that exists downtown," she says. "It's definitely what first drew me to this area, and what makes the core of Phoenix so special compared to more vast, disconnected feeling cities like L.A. . . . I see a studio being installed between shows for portraits and product photography services, but I may just let the space and the situation dictate what comes next."
Parallax opens to the public tonight at 8 at 610 East Roosevelt Street, #148.
